Once we had set the Dimensional Gate, the same messages appeared to all of us in the party.

[In order to enter the 5th Floor and above, you must be in a registered party. The Party subscreen has been enabled in your Tower Menu.]

[The party leader should select the option to Form Party. Other members should select the option to Join Party. When all members have joined, the party leader should select the option to Register Party.]

[Once the party has been registered, additional members cannot be added, and members cannot enter a Floor without the entire party present.]

Bruzigan formed the party, and we joined it.

[Party Registered]

Total size: 6/6

Leader: Bruzigan

Members

Arvallei

Anna

Lheticus

Ri’legh

Mewiabu

Light emanated from the Dimensional Gate, engulfing us. When it cleared, we stood in a cavernous white room, similar to the one I found myself in when I was first summoned to the Tower.

Also similarly to that time, there were quite a few other people there. But that was where the similarities ended.

Now, everyone who arrived in this space was already grouped up with a party of their own. Not everyone had arrived all at once, either—some distance to my right, I saw another party appearing. And where almost everyone had been panicking or at least scared, that wasn’t what I saw here. Sure, some of them looked nervous, but even the nervous ones were holding it together, steeling themselves for what was to come.

The situation was entirely different from the first time they had found themselves in a place like this. Now, everyone here at least had some idea of what they were going to be up against. And whether they had done so through only Basic difficulty missions, or challenged themselves as Extremely as Mewi and I had, each and every person here had been hardened by the Tower’s first four Floors.

[Welcome to the <5th Floor Landing>.]

[The party leader is choosing your mission difficulty.]

[Extreme difficulty selected.]

[Transit to the 5th Floor will occur when the timer expires. Your mission will be revealed at that time.]

[Prepare to enter the 5th Floor.]

**********

“All right you two,” said Bruzigan. We were in a classroom setting again. I had wanted to do something different for the parts of our respective training training and briefings that required lectures, but Mewi and Bruzigan had out-voted me. “It’s time to talk about the Landings.

Every serious climber considers the 5th Floor to be the start of the ‘real’ Tower. It is vital to remember that what you two have faced so far, the solo missions, are not the rule but the exception. In Area 1 at least, there are no more solo floors.

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However, though the party missions are the most major difference between the first four Floors and the rest, it is far from the only one. First, there are the Landings. Not only do climbers enter the Floors as a team from now on, everyone enters a Floor at the start of its challenge at the same time. Every hour on the hour, by the Area’s standard time, the previous challenge period ends and the new one begins.

The place where challengers gather before the start of each Floor challenge is known as a Landing. You’ve both actually seen one before—the room that New Summoned first arrive in the Tower in is actually a Landing.

The Landing is also where all teams set their challenge difficulty, but other than that, we just have to psych ourselves up and wait. Once we enter the Floor, on the other hand, it’s going to be a lot trickier than you’re used to.

First is the matter of the mission itself. While the missions on the first four Floors are more or less the same for everybody because of their instanced nature, the missions from now on will be much more varied. They could be just about anything. In rare cases,” and here he gave us a very serious look, “teams are given a mission to kill other challengers.”

“So that wasn’t just a one-off, in the Tutorial,” I said, meeting his gaze, “one of the options for a High difficulty mission I could choose from was to kill a certain number of Tutorial Challengers.”

“Wait, you got choices?” said Mewi, “I just had my mission assigned to me. Then when I had to ‘try again’, I just got the same mission only with a slightly higher wolf kill requirement.”

“The Tutorial...no one’s sure why it’s different between Medium and High difficulty, or why there’s a choice option at all, but the fact of the matter is that everyone who chooses High or above gets a choice, and everyone below it doesn’t.”

“Ok, so the next mission could be just about anything,” I said, “what else?”

“The Leeches,” said Bruzigan, “granted, there shouldn’t be any who can threaten us. Still, we should keep alert in the Landing for anyone who seems abnormally strong—chances are, they’re repeating the Floor to extract resources from it. It’s also not impossible that the antifeds will send assassins for us on a Floor. Probably not until the later Floors of the Area, but still, be on guard.”

This was referring to, of course, challengers who had already cleared a floor returning to it at the behest of some organization or group or other, in order to extract resources unique to the Floor they repeated. They weren’t usually considered full members of whatever organization they worked for. Sometimes it was like Area 1's idea of an internship program, in other cases it provided a way for people to earn pay and protection from factions that would otherwise never accept them as proper members.

“Finally, on most Floors, there’s a limit to the number of challenger teams that can enter at a time. It’s very rare for this to come up, but still, this should be a thorough lesson.”

**********

At the moment we arrived in the Landing, there was a bit more than 15 minutes to go before we’d enter the 5th Floor proper. “Hey,” said Arvallei, “doesn’t it seem like there are too many teams here? I know, it probably won’t reach capacity, but still...”

Bruzigan grunted. “With such upheaval in Area 1 now, many residents of Area 1 who had long done their best to extend their time in between floors are flocking to the challenges.”

“Hoping to escape the turmoil by leaving the Area,” said Ri’legh, “though I fear that most of them will not find the next Area a great deal more pleasant than this one is now.”

“Why’s that then?” asked Mewi. I looked up from my own thoughts.

“Area 1 has been without its safe zones for not even a year,” said Ri’legh, “but the rest of the Tower, so far as anyone knows, have never had them in the first place. Instead, in Area 2, the Tower enforces severe penalties in all places for challengers who kill other challengers. Between this, and various peacekeeping organizations, wanton slaughter is extremely rare.

But more isolated incidents of someone very strong murdering someone very weak are not so rare. And let us say nothing of other fates that can befall them in which a victim is kept quite alive.

Altogether, those without strength are at very high risk of...being treated extremely poorly there.”

“Wait, how can you possibly know all this?” Now I was genuinely curious.

“There are limited means to communicate between Areas. Also, for those born in the Tower, they remain in the same Area as their parents until they reach a certain age, and so enter the Tutorial. I was born in Area 2. Most of what I have explained, I learned when I was a child.”

“Let’s get focused back on the mission,” said Anna, “how much would it suck if the great ‘hero’ group fails our first team mission ever because both our main damage dealers got lost in their own heads?”

I shook my head with vigor, literally shaking off some dark thoughts that were intruding because of what Ri’legh had been saying. “You’re right, sorry.”

“I too, apologize,” said Ri’legh, and the rest of the waiting time passed in silence.